June 3, 2018 | Less Evil

Garth Turner

A best-selling Canadian author of 14 books on economic trends, real estate, the financial crisis, personal finance strategies, taxation and politics.
Nationally-known speaker and lecturer on macroeconomics, the housing market and investment techniques. He is a licensed Investment Advisor with a fee-based, no-commission Toronto-based practice serving clients across Canada.

This Thursday Ontario gets a new government. What a choice. It makes Trump-Clinton look good.

Over the weekend the Liberals blew themselves up as premier Kathleen Wynne admitted she couldn’t win. It was a stunning, gutsy, moronic move by a politician who should know it’s not all about her. In a few sentences she cut the legs out from under thousands of volunteers and 124 candidates. It will take a long time to get over that one.

Left standing is a shrill socialist and a Tory with the personality of a DeWalt cordless. The Dippers have delivered a strong, themed campaign supported by a fully-costed and exhaustive platform. Of course, they pose a major economic and financial threat, supported by an army of lefty moister bots who should Google ‘Bob Rae.’ The Cons never really recovered from losing their leader to a suspicious sex scandal, electing an inarticulate Trump wannabe who loses support with every verbalization and is campaigning on slogans. Quelle mess. The left-right divide has rarely been so deep, now that the Libs decided to suicide.

No wonder people are thinking of electing General Zod.

Disgruntled Torontonian Zoltan Hawryluck had a few drinks one night and decided that Zod should run. “General Zod is dedicated to the subjugation of the people of Ontario,” Zoltan says. “He is a ruthless dictator. In short, a better choice than Doug Ford.” As you might imagine, Zod lawn signs have been in hot demand.

So have posters for the NOTA party. In fact the None-Of-The-Above organization actually has candidates on Thursday’s ballot – 42 of them at last count. Its media-hungry leader is Greg Vezina, a guy I have known for more than three decades, during which time he has been consistently weird. Anyway, this is what NOTA stands for – a romantic agenda of bottom-up democracy in a world in which leadership politics dominates.

The NOTA Party campaigns for the 3Rs of Direct Democracy – Referendum, Recall and Real electoral and legislative Reforms that give voters control of politicians and parties. Candidates are accountable to their constituents and there are no central party policies or controls of elected MPPs beyond the binding Direct Democracy principles.

We want Recall Laws to apply to politicians, civil servants and judges all of whom who are virtually immune from real public accountability so that they pay for errors in their conduct the same way all others do with penalties including immediate termination with a loss of all severance pay, pensions or other benefits, for any dereliction of duty and other improper conduct.

None of the Above is part of a worldwide movement of new and independent parties and candidates campaigning for direct democracy and voter empowerment policies supported by voters and non-voters alike.

NOTA candidates will do slightly better than Zod, because they actually exist. But none will be elected. And it’s unlikely the Dippers will be, either. Yes, they lead the popular vote right now (37% to 35% at last count), but in our first-past-the-post system a party must have a consistent voting base across a great many risings in order to elect enough members. The odds are Toronto will end up orange, for example, while great swaths of the hinterland go blue. The latest CBC polltracker showed 80%+ odds that Premier DeWalt will emerge.

But anything can happen. The Liberal collapse – if it occurs – could send voters scampering in unexpected directions. I’ve been in too many elections, as a candidate and player, to figure people out. They vote in their own self-interest, and are usually pissed.

If the NDP wins then two-thirds of Canada’s GDP will come from provinces run by socialists. That’s scary. Tax-and-spend policies will the norm in Ontario. Alberta and BC. If the Conservatives win, it’s big trouble for T2 a year before the next federal election, since Wynne was a key ally. Real estate stands to be seriously impacted either way. Andrea Horwath wants landlords spanked and renters supported, will bring in a BC-style ‘speculation’ tax and actually legislate rents lower. Doug Ford says he would remove government from the marketplace, reducing regulations to help homebuilders and get rid of the foreign buyers tax.

So, if you think bigger government, increased social spending, cheap childcare, free drugs, bigger deficits and more taxes are the answer, go Dipper. If you want deregulation, lower taxes, less government and higher testosterone levels, vote Con. The Libs, NOTA and Zod are there for comic relief. And we sure need it.